Birthday Cake!

I've been working hard on a secret project for Every Creative Endevour's Creative Bloggers Got Talent contest. I got into the first round and am super excited to see what the other crafters do (and how my work compares to theirs). Fun!

Now on to my post... About a month ago, our daughter turned 3 years old! This is the first year she's actually cared about her birthday, so I was thrilled when she asked for a flower cake. I get to try to make a fun cake! Whee!

Nevermind that I've never done any sort of cake decorating before. I just sort of figured it out as I went, which is pretty typical of how I do most things. :)

The added challenge in this cake adventure was that 1) the cake and frosting needed to be dairy free (for me and our daughter) and 2) my husband only likes pound cakes, so if I wanted him to eat it, it had to be a pound cake. Picky man. ;)

Thank the Lord for the internet! I found a dairy free pound cake and an easy buttercream frosting recipe that would work well with a dairy free margarine. Everything baked nicely and whipped up nicely, so I was ready to go with my flower cake creating.


I decided I was going to do a standard 5 petal flower because they were easy enough to work around a circle and I just happened to have 6 4-inch cake pans in the cupboard. I baked the cakes the night before, let them cool completely, and then wrapped them (a lot!) in plastic wrap.

 The next day I unwrapped them and used a circle cookie cutter to cut off the edges so that all the circles were pretty much flat on the sides.

 I arranged them around the center circle to see how they looked.

 And trimmed a bit off with the same circle cookie cutter. I started with a small bit to make sure I didn't take too much off.

 Just about perfect. At this point, I spread icing on the inside of the edges so that the petals would stick to the center a bit. I was a bit skimpy on my icing at this point and the petals continued to move around a bit. I should have layered it on a bit more.

 Then I did a "crumb" layer of icing, just to smooth out the surface of the cake and take care of all the crumbs. Once that was finally done, then I could really frost this cake! The sides were the hardest for me. They never did turn out right.

 But, finally, after taking more of naptime, I got my flower cake looking decent. Then I remembered some sprinkles in the cupboard. Sprinkles cover a multitude of imperfections! :)

 I used yellow sugar on the petals and orange sprinkles for the middle. I was very pleased with how it turned out!

 Our daughter was thrilled with it.

 And it was yummy! Not quite like "real" pound cake, but not a bad substitute. :) You'll notice I also went pretty light on the icing. We aren't big icing fans around here. I was pleased with how well the icing spread and let me keep it thin.

Now we'll see if I'll be able to top myself for next year's birthday! ;)

~Regina

Summer Fun

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Between keeping up with our 2 1/2 year old, completing some much-needed sewing projects, and having my parents come to visit, I'm pretty exhausted. :) But on to the goodies...

Every afternoon, I've been trying to do some "big" activity with our daughter. Three times a week, it's swimming, but the other days it's something creative outside. Stuff like sidewalk paint...

 To make sidewalk paint: combine equal parts cornstarch and water, mix well, add food coloring or liquid watercolors...

 Regular painting on big sheets of paper...

 And liquid water colors...

 Which can be turned into fun things like butterfly garlands!

I've also had some fun sewing projects, like my husband's Father's day present: a "Don't Panic" beach towel! I learned how to machine appliqué with this project--time consuming, but not difficult.

 A new nightgown for our daughter. I had a pattern for this style, but the sizing was too small, so I used a stretchy fabric and used the pattern simply as a shape guide.

 I think it turned out wonderfully and can't wait to make another one for her! :)

 And curtains for our living room. I've had this fabric for over a year (lived in 3 different houses since buying it) and finally used it!

 The curtains turned out nice, but the slightly stretchy crinkle cotton was a pain and a half to work with. BUT I did learn how to use my rolled hemmer foot while sewing them, which I'm thrilled about.

And, finally quite a few cooking or baking projects, like homemade strawberry jam using apples and lemons for pectin rather than store-bought pectin.

 Mmmmm! I made this jam a month ago and we've already eaten almost 3 out of the 4 8oz jars.

And a totally random zucchini coffee cake using bisquick. I put 3 cups of grated zucchini into the bisquick recipe for an 8x8 pan. Next time I'll only do 2 cups of zucchini.

 I even put zucchini into the topping, too, which made it really wet...

 So I swirled it into the batter.

 I also had to bake it 15-20 minutes longer than called for (totally expected). So it bake for a total of 40-45 minutes. Oh, and yes, this is a 7x11 pan and I wouldn't use a pan any smaller for the zucchini-added cake.

 Yummy! The very bottom of the cake has that slightly pudding-y feel to it, which is nice, but I think that means I put in a bit too much zucchini.

So, there's a sampling of what I've been up to over the past month. Busy, busy around here!

~Regina

Colorful Pound Cake!

Now, for a change of pace: pound cake! With food coloring! :)

Pound Cake
I'm not completely sure where this recipe came from, probably my mom. :)

1 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
Food coloring

Prep time: 30-45 minutes
Bake time: 90 minutes (1 1/2 hours)
Oven: 350 degrees F
Yield: 1 tube or bundt pan

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream softened butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time, until well combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Stir dry ingredients together in another bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Once well combined, mix in the vanilla. 
So, now you have this:

And this:

 I got the idea to color  my cake from here, who got it from elsewhere. Rainbow cakes and cupcakes have been floating around the internet for a while.  Anyways....I divided my batter as equally as I could into three bowls (please pardon my computer in the background, I was keeping track of something important while baking).

Choose your colors and squeeze (or drip) the coloring onto your batter. You will likely use quite a bit of coloring if you want vivid colors.  I wanted red, orange, and yellow to celebrate the arrival of Autumn.

 In process...

 All done!  I ran out of the red and yellow coloring, so I couldn't make the batter any more vivid, which was fine.

Pour one color at a time into your greased and floured pan (confession: I only greased mine). Red:

 Try to pour them evenly because you don't want to have to spread them much. The colors will swirl together and begin to mix if you try.  Of course, you might want this effect and it would probably be pretty cool.  Orange:

And my last layer, yellow:

Pop it into your preheated oven (350 degrees F) and watch it bake.  I thought it was very interesting how the lowest layer (red) actually rose up the edges because of how the batter was poured onto it.

 So, once a toothpick inserted into the middle of the ring of cake come out clean, the cake should be done.  My cake usually has to bake 1 hour and 15 minutes, but thanks to my oven, the "top" (whatever is closest to the roof of the oven) is always over-done. I did pretty well with keeping this cake from burning, but if you look closely, you'll see some burned edges.

Holding the pan with hot pads, flip it over onto a cooling rack and let the cake fall out of the pan.  It should come out easily, but if it doesn't, don't force it. Just let the pan sit upside down on the rack while the cake cools.  It should come out easily eventually. If it doesn't, then you definitely didn't grease the pan well enough and, well, have fun getting the stuck cake out! ;)

Once it's cooled, slice and enjoy!  Of course, you don't have to wait for it to fully cool, but it is recommended.  Not that I ever listen to that particular recommendation when it comes to pound cake....

Mmmmm!

~Regina

Note: Of course, you don't have to put food coloring into the cake, you can just make it plain and it's just as wonderful that way.  But I like to brighten things up every once in a while. :)